Early in Barbara’s career as an oboist, she was performing with the University of Texas Symphony Orchestra, andon this day two of her dear friends were in the audience. The time came for Barbara to sound the “A” and the orchestra to tune. Out of the raucous cacophony of an orchestra warming up emerges an unwavering A-440 from Barbara’s oboe. The orchestra quietened and joined her on the tuning tone. Barbara’s friend turned to her husband and said in a stage whisper, “Isn’t that just like Barbara to get everyone organized and so quickly?”

Huevos Benedictinos on Sopes and Chorizo with Poblano Chile Sauce

Barbara and I have been close friends for decades. I watched her children grow up. Over the years we have shared music, laughter, tears, friends and, ofcourse, food. Being in her company just feels right, everything is at ease.

She grew up in Brownsville, Texas, across the Mexican border from Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico. This is at the very bottom tip of Texas. Mexican food was taken for granted there. Making huevos rancheros, tacos and enchiladas without recipes was natural for Barbara.

Barbara prepared heuvos rancheros by making a poaching sauce from tomatoes, tomato sauce, jalapeños, onions and garlic. First onions and garlic were sautéed in a little oil, then the chiles and finally heating the tomatoes and sauce to a simmer. Fresh eggs were carefully broken into the sauce to poach and then all was spooned over tortillas.

Memories of Barbara’s food haunts me from time to time. She once made a shrimp creole that was absolutely one of the best things I have ever eaten. She was using a recipe this time, one from Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen. It involved making a seafood stock with the heads and shells of the shrimp. I took a whiff and doubted its benefit in the recipe. To me, it had an offensive smell. Now Barbara was doubtful. Her husband, Jimmy, said to use it anyway. Lucky for us that she followed his advice. It was memorable. And, after all, who am I to doubt a Paul Prudhomme recipe … or Barbara?

My vision of the huevos benedictinos recipe has changed so many times from something more like Barbara’s heuvos rancheros to the benedict style. It all solidified this week when I spied a recipe in the May issue of Bon Appétit forPoached Eggs with Tomatillo Sauce, Poblano Chile Sauce and Refried Beans. I was taken by the Poblano Chile Sauce, which would be my hollandaise substitute.

Poblanos are those large, dark-green chiles inthe supermarket that are most often used for chiles rellenos. They have a distinctive flavor and are seldom hot.

Sopes are simple cornmeal cakes and are sometimes called gorditas. Gordita means “fatty” in Spanish. Gorditas are usually split horizontally to make a pocket and then filled with something savory. As sopes, they are topped with a variety of goodies, most often shredded beef, chicken or pork and chopped lettuce and tomatoes. They make nice little vessels for small bites with drinks or wine before dinner.

Now it’s time to go hands on. Kneed the dough until it is thoroughly mixed.

Traditionally, sopes are formed by taking a walnut-size ball and flattening it between a folded-over piece of plastic wrap to about ¼ inch (.64 cm.) thickness. (You can use a tortilla press too.)

Keep covered with a slightly damp towel while you form the remainder.

An alternate and quicker method involves rolling out the dough on a lightly floured surface and using a round cookie cutter to cut out the sopes. This is the method I used.

Gather up the scrap dough and re-roll for more sopes.

You will immediately notice that the sopes are delicate and prone to damage. No worries, just carefully repair any breaks.

Heat a large cast iron skillet until moderately hot then brush lightly with some oil.

Carefully place the sopes in the hot skillet and cook until lightly browned in spots, about 1-2 minutes per side.

Remove to a warm platter and keep warm.

Cooked Sopes

I dearly love cast iron pans. When properly cared for, they function like a fine performance automobile. My sopes slid around in this pan like hockey pucks on ice.

For the poblano chile sauce:

1 large fresh poblano chile, roasted, skinned, seeded and chopped

½ tablespoon (7.5 ml.) butter

2 tablespoons (30 ml.) white onion, finely chopped

1 small clove of garlic, finely minced

¾ cup (180 ml.) heavy cream

¼ cup ( 60 ml.) milk, whole

Salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste

Roast the poblano directly over a gas flame on your stove. If you have only an electric range, your option is your oven or outdoor grill. A charcoal grill is excellent as it imparts a smoky flavor to the chiles. Your goal is to char the exterior of the chiles so they will peel easily.

My method for doing this quickly is roasting on the stovetop flame along with the aid of a blowtorch—not one of those petite crème brûlée torches; the kind you have around the house to thaw frozen pipes. This is very helpful for charring any deep crevices and the end of the chile where the stem is attached.

When the chile is completely charred, place in a bowl with some scalding hot water and cover to let the chile steam for about 20-30 minutes.

Don your latex or vinyl gloves to protect your hands while you peel, seed and chop the chiles.

To peel it, hold the chile by one hand on a cutting board and scrape the charred peel away from you. It should come off with ease.

Remove the stem end, cut the chile open and begin scraping away the seeds and any membranes.

Chop finely.

Melt the butter in a small, heavy-bottomed sauce pan.

Add the onions and garlic and sauté for a few minutes.

Add the chopped chile and continue sautéing for a couple of minutes.

Add the cream and milk while whisking constantly.

Bring to a boil and immediately reduce heat to a simmer.

Simmer for a few minutes until it thickens and is reduced to about 1 cup (240 ml.).(I strayed a bit here and whisked in about 1-2 teaspoons (5-10 ml.) of Wondra® flour for additional thickness.)

Season with the salt and white pepper.

Transfer the sauce to a blender and purée until smooth. (Be extra careful when blending hot liquids. I cover the blender lidded jar with a heavy towel and hold it on tightly when I switch on the blender.)

Keep the sauce warm until ready to use.

Note: You could make a hollandaise or a béchamel sauce with the poblano as well. The lightest would be a béchamel made with just milk, butter, flour and the poblano.

For the chorizo:

1 pound (454 gr.) of your favorite chorizo or make your own. Zenner’s in Portland makes one of the best.

Form the chorizo into 8 patties.

Cook until done in a heavy skillet.

Set aside and keep warm.

For the poached eggs:

I have found no better method for poaching eggs than one from The Best Recipes Cookbook from the editors of Cooks Illustrated magazine.

8 large fresh eggs

1 teaspoon (5 ml.) salt

2 tablespoons (30 ml.) white vinegar

Fill a 12-inch (30 cm.) skillet nearly to rim with water, add the salt and vinegar, and bring mixture to boil over high heat.

Carefully break the eggs into 8 small-handled tea cups.

Lower the lips of 4 of the cups into the water at once: tip the eggs into the boiling water, cover, and remove from the heat.

Poach for 4 minutes for medium-firm yolks.

Carefully remove with a slotted spoon to a paper towel-covered plate.

Repeat with the remaining four eggs.

For the assembly:

1 large, ripe tomato, finely chopped

½ cup (120 ml.) cilantro, finely chopped

Place two sopes on each plate.

Place a sausage patty on top of the sope.

Gently lay an egg on each sausage patty. (Gracie Allen would have fun with this step!)

Spoon some of the poblano chile sauce over all and garnish with the chopped tomato and cilantro.

* Several years ago I discovered that although all Tequilas are “hecho en Mexico” (made in Mexico), some lower-priced ones are imported and also bottled in the US. I always look for one that is also bottled in Mexico for the proper flavor. Sauza White margaritas are stellar when made with the Sauza bottled in Mexico, but sub-ordinary with the one bottled in the US.

Stir all the ingredients in a large measuring cup and divide evenly over ice cubes in 2 highball glasses.

Garnish with a lime or lemon wedge, cucumber or a cocktail shrimp.

The original recipe called for the following optional ingredients. Vic and I tasted it with them and agreed we would not include in future Bloody Marias. We prefer the more traditional.

Music, food and photography are at the center of Charles’ life. He performed with the Dallas Symphony, Dallas Opera and was assistant principal bassoonist with the Fort Worth Symphony for more than 20 years. When Charles and Victor moved to Baltimore, Charles created Lone Star Personal Chef and Catering Service and taught cooking classes at Williams-Sonoma. Now in Salem, Charles is a Realtor with Coldwell Banker Mountain West Real Estate, taught cooking classes for children at the A.C. Gilbert Discovery Village, and owns and operates Charles Price Photography. Charles and Vic enjoy entertaining and frequently host dinners as fundraisers for local non-profits and charities

Some would say that pot roast is ordinary fare suitable only for family dining. Nonsense I say – with good presentation, a beautifully plattered pot roast dressed up with it’s accompanying vegetables and sauce should delight even the most discriminating diner. After all, this baby sits on a lofty pot roast plateau by virtue of including porcini mushrooms and a Willamette Valley Pino Noir in the sauce.

You don’t have to fire up the grill for great barbecue baby back pork ribs or pulled pork barbecue. It will take longer, but you can just sear the meat in a pan and then plop it in the crock pot (a.k.a slow cooker), add the barbecue sauce and let it slow cook for most of the day. You’ll be surprised at the results. And while we’re on the subject, I just can’t understand why anybody would by barbecue sauce. It’s just so easy to make and it’s so much fun to improvise.

Father’s Day. It’s always held such an ambiguous place in my life. I’ve never celebrated Father’s Day for as long as I can remember. To say that I’ve had somewhat distant relationships with the father figures in my life, my three stepfathers, is putting it mildly. I never knew my biological father. It’s not to [...]

When visiting the Queener Fruit Farm I was inspired by the sight of their huge, luscious peaches hanging on the trees waiting for Tommie to test its readiness to be harvested, I went beyond devouring them hand to mouth to incorporating these luscious beauties in a chicken dish. I remembered seeing a recipe on The Pioneer Woman Cooks using whiskey, barbecue sauce and peach preserves. Now the whole inspiration was complete.

For Easter, lamb as well as ham are traditional entrees. So I set out to create a low-intimidation lamb recipe that can be easily tackled by most home cooks as well as include uniquely Oregon flavors.
For this recipe, I use lamb chops, which are easily found at grocery stores (even Winco carries them) and are easy to cook, and I combined them with an herb rub of sage, rosemary and juniper berries to complement the flavor of the lamb and then included a glaze using Marionberry jam and a crust of hazelnuts and bread crumbs to give it a signature Oregon flavor.

I’ve had a soft spot for duck. Peking duck, duck noodle soup, duck confit. Ooo la la. It’s no wonder I ended up in a state where one of the universities has a duck for a mascot.
One of my favorite ways to serve duck is to sear it in pork fat (aka lard) and then braise it in red wine. For a change of pace and since I had duck à l’orange on my mind on this occasion, I decided to use Riesling instead and add orange slices as well as preserved peaches, since peaches aren’t in season yet. This dish may be inspired by duck à l’orange, but unlike that dish, this one is easy to prepare and equally rewarding to your taste buds.

Corn is at its best in the hot summer months and, lucky for us, it freezes well so we can pair it when fresh Dungeness crab is at its best – in the cooler months.

Chowders are those rich, thick, stick-to-your-ribs soups usually made with fish, clams or corn with potatoes and onions swimming in milk, cream or both. Building this potage on a foundation of bacon seems like the perfectly natural thing to do so we will.

There’s something familiar about deep frying fish, but there’s also an exotic side. The familiar trout takes a walk on the wild side and gets a faraway flavor being deep fried and then topped with kiwi and mango salsa.

For most of us, dandelions are obnoxious weeds. They’re something to be pulled, yanked and banished from well-manicured lawns. But consider this: Their leaves are edible and according to the University of Maryland Medical Center, they’re full of vitamins A, B, C and D as well as minerals such as iron, potassium and zinc. You can use them in most in recipes that call for spinach.

In the world of canned tuna, there’s much more than Starkist or Bumble Bee. Water packed tuna was all the rage a few decades ago for those eating on the lean side but oil packed, especially olive oil packed is the best choice for ultimate flavor – even if you just eat it out of the can with a fork. A multitude of tuna salads can reach ethereal heights if made with high quality tuna and our home canned fish will provide the back bone for this chunky, no-cook pasta sauce.

I love shrimp! I love bacon! Shrimp loves bacon and bacon loves shrimp. We’re such a lovey-dovey group

Grinding them both up into some savory meatballs for pasta in a creamy sauce seems like a perfectly natural thing to do.

As a twosome, shrimp and bacon go back a long way. Back in the cocktail buffet days they appeared on tables as devils on horseback, a variation of angels on horseback. Often oysters or chicken livers stood in for the shrimp.

Swiss chard always has been a mystery to me, taking the line behind collard greens and kale, both of which I’m much more familiar with. But walking by the produce aisle at Roth’s Vista store the other day, I was stopped dead in my tracks by these beautiful specimens in the organic section, beaming like [...]

For most of us, dandelions are obnoxious weeds. They’re something to be pulled, yanked and banished from well-manicured lawns. But consider this: Their leaves are edible and according to the University of Maryland Medical Center, they’re full of vitamins A, B, C and D as well as minerals such as iron, potassium and zinc. You can use them in most in recipes that call for spinach.

It’s fall. Chilly nights. Rainy days. Movie night at home requires a throw blanket, a warm fireplace a chick flick or buddy flick to warm the heart, and a switch from a glass of white wine or amber beer to a glass of hearty red wine or a stout beer. What to do for finger food? Forget the popcorn or bag of chips. Savor the sweet flavors of fall with sweet potato and beet fries, kicked up a notch by tossing with garlic seasoning.

In Spain, tortillas are the Iberian equivalent of Italian frittatas which use beaten eggs to bind all the ingredients together. Spanish tortillas utilize sliced potatoes and onions as the main ingredients and are sometimes further embellished with small bits of Serrano ham and/or piquillo peppers. In our house, frittatas are a catch all for rendering leftovers into something new for dinner.

I’ve always had a fascination with pâté. There are so many variations, from dense to creamy, but they all have that rich flavor in common. You can also make pâté from a variety of foods, including ground pork, chicken livers, vegetarian ingredients like mushrooms and lentils, and then there’s foie gras. Now before you start [...]

There was a time when I didn’t need a reason to drive to Portland for a casual visit or just to enjoy a day in our area’s most accessible metropolis. Gas was cheap – well, at least it was under $2 a gallon, and I could leisurely drive the 40 or so miles and cruise around town for less than $10. Now I usually wait until I have at least three reasons to make the trip, except for one recent Saturday. I desperately wanted some fresh salmon roe to play with…fuel costs be damned!

Garlic and asparagus are two of my favorite foods. To me, garlic whips combine the best of both: a wonderful mild garlic flavor with the green herbaceous flavor and crunchy texture of asparagus. When the weather turns nice in the spring, start looking for garlic whips to make an appearance at farmers markets and local [...]

Let’s face it. We all face those miserly moments when faced with leftovers brought to the kitchen from the dinner table when we scrape and package leftover side dishes and main dishes into tupperware containers and place them into the fridge, vowing to finish them another day or find another use for them. But most [...]

The weather in the Mid-Willamette Valley has turned cool and wet again. It’s the perfect weather to light a fire in the fireplace, turn on some relaxing music and cozy up to a serving of hot stew and a glass of pinot noir.

I’m convinced that there are spices that can make you high. I can be roaming the streets of Portland, Vancouver, B.C., Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, and my hair will start to vibrate and stand on end when I get that first whiff of star anise in the air. My heartbeat quickens. My sweat glands go into overdrive. I start blinking uncontrollably, as my mind disconnects from my body and my feet start searching for the source of the heavenly aroma. Pungent, sweet, savory. Like licorice but more intoxicating. It’s a key ingredient in one of my favorite Thai dishes of ethnic Chinese origins, a stew of hard-boiled eggs, sweet dark soy sauce and pork hocks, that is flavored with star anise and cinnamon.

It doesn’t happen frequently, but every now and then I just can’t bear to eat another meal of chicken, beef, pork or seafood. On those occasions when Mom’s in charge of the meal and asks what we want for dinner, I’ll say Kang Chup Chay, or our family’s version of a hearty Asian-style vegetable stew.

The flu. Cold. Sniffles. Crud. Whatever you call it, the evil that is aching muscles, stuffy sinus, scratchy throat, pounding headache, malaise, and coughing that seems to be going around is taking its toll. Every culture seems to have a common cure for this ailment. When Americans feel this way, we usually think of chicken [...]

Vic and I had the pleasure of trekking through a cool, damp grove of young Douglas firs in Yamhill County with Jack a few years ago and returned home with a nice bounty of white truffles and even a couple of large black truffles. When I told Jack about anointing a chilled cream of corn soup with his oil, his face lit up with a broad smile of approval and suggested adding dried onion and mushroom powder to the ingredients.

Insalata Caprese, a simple salad in the style of Capri, is so simple that you must use the very best ingredients in season or it will by ordinary at best. The required ingredients are fresh tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil and good olive oil.

It is traditionally served as an antipasto. Additional ingredients are often added and could include garlic, balsamic vinegar and in this rendition, sopressata, an Italian style dry salami. Let’s go one step further and push it right into the primo course by including some freshly cooked bow tie pasta.

One of my treasured memories from Baltimore was enjoying meals at The Womens Industrial Exchange tea room on Charles Street. One of their time honored items was a tomato aspic served with a homemade mayonnaise. It was summer on a saucer.

Nowadays, you don’t have to go foraging for mussels at the beach. Farm-raised mussels are so common that fresh mussels are available at most grocery stores year-round. One of my favorite ways to prepare them is in a Thai style with peppers, basil and a sweet and salty sauce. You can make it a starter or part of a meal by pairing it with another stir fry.

A little rain didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of hundreds of people who came to satisfy their appetite for Thai food and culinary adventure Sunday at Wat Buddha Oregon, the Thai Buddhist Temple nestled in the woods in Turner. For a donation into the collection boxes that lined the food tables, visitors got to sample such [...]

Tacos have become such a part of mainstream American cuisine that on the West Coast other ethnic groups have begun topping the ubiquitous corn tortilla with their cultural culinary specialties. Forget the fish taco, ground beef taco, or shredded beef taco. Their time has come and gone. In Los Angeles and Seattle you can find Vietnamese and Korean food-truck chefs who are creating the latest taco sensations: Korean barbecue and Kimchi tacos, Bulgogi tacos, Vietnamese lemongrass chicken tacos. I mean, when you see a dozen kinds of tacos available in the neighborhood supermarket, and Taco Bells show up in China, what would you expect, right? The taco is ripe for a cultural hijacking. And so this native Thai decided that the time was ripe for….ta da…a Thai taco.

I have been caramelizing apples with sugar, cinnamon and chipotles for some time now to use as a condiment alongside Forever Roast Pork, a classic recipe from Tra Vigne Restaurant in St. Helena California.

Placing the sweet-hot-cinnamony apples center stage in a rustic tart seems like the perfectly natural thing to do, especially when sitting under a healthy scoop of vanilla ice cream. It’s a great combination – trust me.

The utter simplicity and ease of making this is a welcome dessert in the heat of the summer because there is very little cooking required – just simmering the berries and sugar until they give up their juices. The vibrant colors alone make this a stunning showstopper. You could dress it up with a fancy mold, artfully garnish with whipped cream and maybe some roasted, chopped hazelnuts. Yum!

One of the ways to enjoy the flavor of Oregon cherries is in a no-bake cherry cheesecake. Fluffy and airy, it’s almost like a chiffon.
The topping for this cheesecake uses cherry preserves and it makes for a dazzling presentation at dessert time.

We had gotten a whiff of the lore about Oregon white truffles more than 10 years ago, before my partner, Charles Price, and I moved to Oregon from Baltimore. But it wasn’t until a few years after we got here that we truly were infected with the truffle bug. At first, the idea of Oregon [...]

Love of razor clams will make you go to great lengths if you’re an outdoor adventurer. It drove Mom and me to get up at 3:30 a.m. recently on one of my days off in order to pick up friends Tina and Allison Martin and head out on the three-hour drive from Salem to Sunset Beach, north of Seaside, Oregon, in time to get there for the minus low tide at 7:30 a.m. I can’t remember the last time I got up at 3:30 a.m. Nor can I remember the last time I drove 125 miles to catch dinner.

Sometimes it pays off to explore the roads less traveled in Oregon. You never know what magnificent vistas await you. Today, we explored National Forest Service Road 2212, in the Willamette National Forest, and were rewarded with magnificent views of Mt. Jefferson and Detroit Lake.

Edgefield and McMenamins are names most Oregonians associate with beer and pub-style food. But wine? Yes, they do make wine. In fact, pretty good wine. When you think of Oregon wine, pinot noir comes to mind. But there is a burgeoning syrah scene in the Northwest, and one of its most enthusiastic fans is McMenamins [...]

I had the pleasure recently of visiting with John Miller, owner of Mahonia Vineyard, and Travis Henry, Mahonia’s vice president who handles sales and marketing, and getting a chance to learn more about their operation and their wines. This small producer in South Salem has been growing and making wonderful wines for more than 20 [...]

There are occasions when you’re cooking that nothing can surpass rendered pork fat. You’ll be amazed at how much more flavorful your hash browns are, or any potato for that matter, when cooked in pork fat. Or how robust your sauteed green beans will be. Or delectable your collard greens. Or how flaky your pie crust will be. Or how rich your quail or pheasant will taste when seared in pork fat. Instead of buying commercially available lard bricks at the store, I prefer to render pork fat myself. You’ll be surprised how easy it is to do, and how long it can keep in the refrigerator in a mason jar.

Parlez-vous français? No? Well, that’s OK. English is perfectly fine at Domaine Drouhin Oregon, the U.S. outpost of the famed Maison Joseph Drouhin of Beaune, France. According to Domaine Drouhin, the first seeds for what would become Domaine Drouhin Oregon were sown in 1961. Robert Drouhin, head of Burgundy’s legendary Maison Joseph Drouhin, was visiting [...]

Elk Cove Vineyards in Gaston has a beautiful setting and focuses on making excellent pinot noir and pinot gris. It’s La Bohème Pinot Noir has been served twice at the White House during President Clinton’s term.

Commonly known as Sisters, but properly named Three Sisters, these three volcanic peaks of the Cascade Range each exceeds 10,000 ft in elevation. They are the third, fourth and fifth highest peaks in Oregon and are located in the Three Sisters Wilderness, about 15 miles southwest of the town of Sisters, Oregon. The three peaks were originally named Faith, Hope and Charity by early settlers but the names didn’t stick.